PDS: Finising Systems for the Future

Summary

Modelling work conducted for Monaro Farming Systems in 2016 sought to determine the relative profitability of seeking to properly finish lambs on Monaro farms rather than selling animals out as lighter weight stores. Systems tested included simply retaining lambs longer into the autumn, developing specialist Lucerne paddocks to maintain higher growth rates over summer, and the utilisation of brassica forage crops over summer to maintain high growth rates and achieve heavier finished weights. In all cases, the systems were assessed as more profitable than selling weaned crossbred lambs as stores at lighter weights.

This Producer Demonstration Site project was developed to ground-truth the findings of the modelling by gathering real-world data on herbage growth rates and lamb performance on pastures and crops similar to those modelled and also to assess the value of herb species such as plantain and chicory in the Monaro environment as another alternative finishing system.

The data collected showed that the modelled data on pasture and animals' performance was reliable and a partial budgeting approach showed that the adoption of systems to retain lambs and finish them to heavier weights is profitable in most circumstances regardless of the finishing system chosen.
The average net profits per hectare for the nine systems measured within the core group ranged from $305/ha to $1492/ha.  In all cases, these results were significantly higher than the modelled traditional system of selling store lambs at an average lamb sale weight of 29kg and a total enterprise gross margin of $161/ha. 

In terms of industry benefits for the local Monaro grazing industry, if livestock producers adopted some type of lamb finishing system into their business model, the actual profits above the baseline store system would range from $144/ha up to $1,331/ha.  On an average farm size of 2500ha with 20% of this area allocated to a prime lamb enterprise, this would equate to an annual income increase per farm of $72,000 up to $665,500.  The impact on the overall farm system would be a significant increase in business profitability.  It is important to qualify that these types of profits would be dependent on, and influenced by climate (rainfall), soil type, business structure, and management skill.

Additional comparative analysis data from the MFS benchmarking group over the previous six years (2013 – 2019) for prime lamb enterprises, showedaverage net profit/ha/year for group members ranging from $93/ha up to $269/ha  It is important to note that there was a wide variation within this group data and individual business profits consistently ranged from $28/ha up to $498/ha reinforcing the message that finishing lambs is a profitable exercise in the majority of cases and emphasised the significant influence of location, rainfall, and management on overall figures.

Results from our post-project observer survey indicated 90% of respondents indicated that this project has increased their confidence, knowledge, and skills in finishing lambs and 85% plan to implement changes as a result of the data presented.  Of those producers that plan to implement change, the most popular choice was to add more supplementation into the system followed closely by increasing the number of lambs finished, the "type" of finishing pasture and recording more pasture and livestock on-ground data.
As well as the observers, all six of the core producers indicated they will make changes to their current lamb finishing operations as a result of this project and these include more EID animal tracking and pasture measurements as well as increasing the amount of land allocation and number of lambs in this enterprise.

Monaro Farming Systems members should have confidence in the findings of the original modelling and expect significant improvements in farm profits to result from retaining and finishing first and second cross lambs in their breeding enterprise.